Good question! A voter ID law, specifically a strict photo identification requirement as a prerequisite to eligibility to participate in the electoral process, is something that I cannot support. Many individuals seem to think that this type of law is absolutely necessary to prevent voter fraud. But think about it, what type of fraud is a voter ID bill suppose to correct? In-person voting fraud? Academics and research organizations have consistently analyzed election data, combing through thousands of local, state, and national data sets in order to determine the magnitude of voter fraud throughout the United States. There is simply no empirical evidence suggesting that voter fraud is a serious problem, and to the contrary, the data seems to suggest that in-person voting fraud is almost non-existent. I'm sure most of those who follow politics closely are familiar with the saying or existing data point which suggests that individuals are more likely to be struck by lightening than they are to engage in in-person voting fraud, the specific type of fraud that voter identification laws are suppose to stamp out. Although it is difficult to measure the potential effectiveness that a voter identification law may have in terms of preventing voter fraud that, at least empirically, does not exist, it is a comparatively easier task to determine the extent to which such a law might facilitate the political demobilization of specific constituencies of voters. More than 600,000 North Carolina residents lack government-issued identification cards. Many of these different constituencies have, in recent decades, supported the Democratic Party. Thus, it becomes apparent for many, and highly plausible for others, that electoral contraction in a way that confers an electoral advantage to the Republican Party might be the principal reason for why these types of laws are almost invariably passed by Republican legislative majorities and opposed by Democratic legislators and Governors in the states that have adopted strict photo identification requirements for voting.